ISLAMABAD: Election tribunals have been granted another extension of two months in the wake of their failure to decide petitions they received from the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).

The tribunals started working in July last year and were supposed to dispose of all petitions in four months under the law. But even after 20 months, they have failed to do so.

Some of the 14 tribunals disposed of all petitions forwarded to them, but there are still as many as 40 petitions pending decision by various tribunals.

A three-member bench headed by Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk observed in September that high courts did not have a supervisory role over the tribunals because they had been established under federal law and appeal against their judgments could be filed only with the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court had, however, reserved its ruling for an authoritative pronouncement determining whether high courts could take up interim petitions against interim orders of the tribunals.

Many cases could not be taken up by the tribunals because of stays granted by high courts.

But in several cases, the tribunals that were bound to hold day-to-day hearings granted adjournments beyond their legal powers.

Published in Dawn, March 1st, 2015

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